'Wayne Rooney's talent is as obstinate as it is expressive. He was to crack the match open with a breakthrough goal but for most of this fixture he was cowed by Richard Dunne. Were his life not so blessed, one might have felt sorry for the teenager, particularly when he collected an ignominious booking in the 38th minute.
He had brought down Dunne, a marker who was then so much in command that he had just taken the ball and burst away from the striker. Rooney is burly but it looked inconceivable then that he could have the strength to reverse the balance of power in his relationship with the City centre-half. By the end, however, an unfortunate Dunne had been reduced to conceding an own-goal.
It is one of the many freakish elements of Rooney's career that he has never been hampered by the tentativeness that affects other youngsters. He does not shrink from the conflict. That can make him repellent at times and Graham Poll, for instance, ought to have sent him off at Highbury this month for his fouls and foul-mouthed abuse.
United recognise how harmful his faults could be but they will take care not to tame him by suffocating his personality. While Rooney did not play at all well yesterday his desire to make a difference never wavered and his goal, in the 68th minute, illustrated that his appetite will be unblunted even in the middle of a disappointing spell.'